THESE GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN
Two young women, one from Korea, the other from the Philippines, encounter one another in a grocery story on Thanksgiving morning in a small midwestern American city in 1973. Luna (Jenna Agbayani), the talkative one, the outgoing one, invites Jane (Judy Song) up to her apartment. They are the only two Asian women in this small city and they are alone on this holiday’”their immigrant husbands, both medical residents, are working. They have no friends or relatives in the area but they wear the same winter jacket because both of them shop at Kmart (a defunct discount chain) and so why not spend this unfamiliar and foreign holiday together in Luna’s apartment, drinking wine, trying to roast a frozen turkey and reflecting on their past and future? They are two lonely immigrants in search of some fun, and Agbayani and Song provide that and more in the course of this 95-minute ode to friendship and the courage of immigrants.
This is the premise of The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh (The Chinese Lady). Directed for the Huntington by May Adrales, who originally commissioned the piece on behalf of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. The title is a reference to the Hart-Celler Act of 1965 (also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act), which removed limits to immigration based on nationality and opened the way to citizenship for skilled workers like physicians.
The dialogue in this two-hander is fast-paced and entertaining. Agbayani and Song are terrific. Their wit and precise delivery keep us in the moment as they find their way together toward a friendship both of them desperately need. Where would we go? the women ask one another again and again, because they are so unhappy in this strange and lonely land with husbands who work long hours. They come up with ideas: Disneyland, a night club to dance, a porno movie to compare their husbands’ penises with those of other men (but they rule that out because everyone would know who they were in this small city where no one else looks like them), a country fair, Paris.
They know the cost of this new life, a life that sometimes seems like an adventure and at other times like a trap. They and their husbands came because they were told that because their husbands are doctors they will someday be people with money’”but they don’t know whether to trust that promise, because what they have found so far in the United States has not lived up to their expectations, expectations that Jane (who took her American name from Jane Fonda) links to the pleasure of the chocolates American G.I.s gave South Korean children. In a powerful monologue, Luna explains that immigrants are the “heart sellers”’”people who must sell their hearts to enter this country. “I changed the minute I stepped off the plane because I sold it.” Luna says. No one in the United States can understand her and she will raise children who are American who will not understand her.
And then she vomits on Jane’s shirt. They have to change their clothes after that. They change out of their street clothes, presumably purchased at Kmart, and into their “home clothes,” or lounging dresses that look as though they were brought from Asia. In the course of the play they have learned about the many things they have in common, despite their different national origins. Luna loves to sing and Jane longs to paint, so they are both artists, but it goes beyond that. Not only are they the only Asian women in this community, unhappily married to medical residents and wearing the same winter coat, they both love the TV show Soul Train and love to dance, they both had sisters who were communists, and they both hate Richard Nixon. Both recognize that the reason they have had to emigrate is because powerful [American] men have “hurt” their homes in Asia.
And finally, of course, both have sold their hearts to pursue their husband’s dreams and fulfill their roles as “perfect” wives, but here is something else they have in common: both have made a friend on this Thanksgiving day in 1973. As the day comes to an end, they wonder again where they will go, and they decide they will shop together in Kmart.
Junghyun Georgia Lee provides scenic design; lighting is by Kat C. Zhou, sound design and original music are provided by Fabian Obispo.
photos of Judy Song and Jenna Agbayani by T. Charles Erikson
The Heart Sellers
Huntington Theatre Company
The Huntington Calderwood/BCA, 527 Tremont St. in Boston
ends on December 23, 2023
for tickets, call 617-266-0800 or visit Huntington
